


'Tis the Season

by Royalwriter



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Confessions of love, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Mighty Nein as a Family, Primarily Fjordester with the other ships as backround, Unspecified fantasy world, holiday party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 23:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17273414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Royalwriter/pseuds/Royalwriter
Summary: Jester's already putting a holiday party together for her friends, and if she's learned anything from the copious amounts of romance novels she's read, the time for a confession of feelings is after everyone is stuffed full of cookies and friendship. She just hopes Fjord shares the sentiment.





	'Tis the Season

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smartlions](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smartlions/gifts).



> This is my gift for the crit role fic exchange for smartlions! I combined two of the prompts, general studio ghibli vibes, and a holiday party for all of her friends. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Jester is very excited for this year’s holiday party. She’s spent the entire week baking, mostly magically, if she’s honest, but it still takes time! The new spell she made where the unseen servants actually look like they have hats might be her personal favorite. They’re adorable and helpful. The perfect holiday combination.

She might keep them for after the holidays if she’s honest with herself. The tree isn’t decorated yet, but that’s because Clay is still trying to find them a tree that doesn’t mind being the center of attention. He’s promised to come early and bring it though, so she’s not letting herself worry about it. What she is letting herself worry about, is the gift exchange.

They all drew names, and between her and Nott they both figured out who has who. Or, well, they have a very good guess.

Jester was excited because she got Fjord, so obviously she had to tell Nott. Nott promised to keep it a secret except for Caleb because she doesn’t want to lie to Caleb if he asks. And _Caleb_ swore a much too serious oath that he wouldn’t tell anyone so she’s sure the secret is safe.

There’s nerves still, but that’s not because the party might not go well. Her friends always love her holiday parties. She’s worried because she wants to tell Fjord her feelings tonight, since it’s the holidays and in the books they always confess near the holidays. The snow makes it all seem terribly romantic to her. There’ll be the smell of freshly baked goods in the air, everyone opening presents, so long as nothing goes wrong it’ll be perfect. And she’s going to make sure that nothing goes wrong.

A quiet squeaking near the door draws her attention. Sprinkles has run into the kitchen, glowing a light blue. She also figured out how to enchant Sprinkles to alert her when someone gets to the door.

“Is Caduceus here bud? Are you the bestest weasel in the whole wide world for telling me? Huh? Yes you are!” Sprinkles scurries into her hands, she scritches him, a bit of flour sticking behind his ears. 

“I’m coming Caduceus!” She casts to carry her voice down the banister as she slides down it to land at the door nearly in a heap.

Jester uses magic to swing the door open to reveal Clay standing with a tree levitating next to him.

“Hi!”

“Hello there. Do you mind giving me a hand with this? I’ve been using magic this whole way, but that gets a bit tiresome after a while.” Clay levitates a large tree into the doorway.

“Oh of course Clay! One second,” Jester mutters her own incantation and her spell swirls around the tree. Together they both carry into the large foyer, placing it next to the fireplace.

“This one was okay with all of us looking at them?” She asks.

“Oh yeah, real attention hog this guy. I looked into it and he wasn’t looking too healthy anyways, so we made a deal. He decided that everyone looking at him was a more fitting funeral than decomposing by himself in the woods. Of course, I’ll make sure he decomposes quickly after we’re done with him but until then we’re good to go.” 

“Awesome! Let’s get going then!”

* * *

By the time everyone else arrives Caduceus and Jester have the tree fully decorated. Caleb has Frumpkin wrapped around his shoulders, already purring. Nott’s at his side.

Jester doesn’t really remember how Nott ended up living with Caleb. She thinks she just showed up on his doorstep one day and started parenting him. They all questioned it for like a day, but Caleb’s so much better adjusted now that she’s living there that they can’t question it. 

She’s very grateful for it too! If Nott never moved into Caleb’s then Jester doubts he ever would left his big wizard tower to meet anyone else. And she doesn’t know where her friends would be without him.

Besides, she knows he at least makes Mollymauk very happy to be around.

That’s another secret that Jester isn’t supposed to share. Nott doesn’t even know that one. Nott’s very good at keeping secrets, as long as the secret isn’t being kept from Caleb. That’s okay.

By the time Caleb gets there pretty much everyone else is filing in after him. They didn’t want Jester chasing them down to make sure they were on time.

Beau’s draped over Yasha’s arm when they get there together. No one is allowed to comment on it, but Jester waggles her eyebrow at Beau. Beau waggles her eyebrows back, then gently punches Jester on the shoulder when she walks by. Jester punches back, harder.

“Can someone light a fucking fire in here? I’m freezing.” Beau gripes.

“Caleb! Caleb can do it!” Nott insists before anyone else can volunteer.

“Oh could you? I meant to I just forgot with everything else,” Jester says.

“Yeah, of course. Everyone back up just a bit first though, yeah?” Caleb replies, glancing around to make sure everyone does as they’re told. Everyone does, and so he ushers everyone back to light it.

“Hey nice job,” Beau tousles Caleb’s hair. He grimaces.

“I wish you would not do that.”

“I know.” 

“Beauregard, are you being rude on a holiday?” Molly greets Beau with a hug.

“Maybe.”

Beau pounds them on the back when the hug has gone on for long enough. Jester laughs. She missed having all of her friends in the same room.

“Guys! It’s time to eat, go to the dining room, go!” Jester shoos everyone im, levitating the dishes as she does. Sprinkles runs underneath them, desperately begging for food.

The fire Caleb starts burns strongly enough to warm even the distant dining room. The food Caduceus made is a hit, as are the desserts that Jester provided. There’s only one very small food fight between Jester and Beau, and Caleb is kind enough to clean up after them.

* * *

Caleb taps Jester on the shoulder later in the evening.

“Ah Jester, you said you wanted to exchange presents at eight yes? It’s eight now, if you wanted to know,” 

“Thank you Caleb! You’re the best!” Jester beams at him.

She claps her hands together. “Okay! Time to exchange presents, everyone go sit by the tree!”

Everyone makes their way there with minimal shoving. It’s actually rather impressive. They’re all in a big circle. Jester glances around before settling on Caleb. He told her what time it was, so he should get his gift first.

“Whoever has Caleb, go first! And then Caleb can give his gift to whoever he has, and we’ll keep going like that unless two people have each other? Sound good?” 

Everyone agrees, and Beau stands up rather begrudgingly. She takes her present from underneath the tree. It’s wrapped pretty badly, but it does look like she put time into it.

“Here you go,” She tosses it lightly to Caleb. He almost drops it, but Nott snags it and hands it to him before it can hit the ground.

“Thank you,” Caleb takes his time unwrapping, lifting each piece of tape individually. Inside is what looks like a heavy leather bound journal. Caleb flips through each of the pages slowly.

Beau tucks her hands into her pockets.

“The paper should be nice enough that you can use it for spells. Or you know— Whatever you want to use it for. Doesn’t matter.” She’s trying very hard to be cavalier about it. She’s doing a very bad job.

Caleb looks up from it and smiles at Beau. It’s the biggest grin Jester has seen on him in awhile.

“It’s wonderful Beauregard. Thank you.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it.” Beau looks away from him. Jester smiles. She’s never been good at handling gratitude from her friends.

Caleb very reluctantly sets the journal down next to him. “I had Yasha.” 

Yasha opens her gift, which is a jar filled with different flowers that Caleb had dried. She smiles softly.

“They’re perfect, thank you Caleb.”

“Yeah, I’ve been collecting them while I look for magic supplies, so they’re from many places.”

“I love them.” 

Yasha gives Clay a tea set, which he recieves with clear delight.

“I can finally have you all over at once now. I have some new flavors I think you’ll really enjoy.” He says.

“Jester, I have something for you.” Clay hands her package and she squeals before digging into it.

“Oh they’re beautiful Caduceus,” He’s given her a set of paints, colors she hasn’t seen come premixed before. It’ll save her hours in paintings.

“I’m glad you like them. I mixed them myself.”

“Dead people paints?” She laughs.

“Dead people paints,” he confirms.

“Fjord! I have you!” Jester flounces to the tree and grabs the gift with the most bows on it.

She was very thorough in her decorating. At least twelve bows, all in his favorite color. The wrapping job is good too. She’s still nervous as she hands it to him. She spent a long time on it, and he needs to like it so he’s in a good mood when she tells him about her feelings.

Fjord stares at it when he first opens it. It’s a shell, but he doesn’t seem to get the point at first. Jester should wait until he figures it out on his own.

“If you look into it it shows you a view from a different ship each time!” She’s never been good at patient.

“Oh!” Fjord looks into the shell for a long time. He’s contemplative when he looks away from it. 

“That’s a mighty fine gift, thank you Jester.”

“I’m glad you like it Fjord!” Yes, okay, this went well. She can survive, she can tell him later and he’ll be buttered up.

“I do, very much,” he looks into the shell one more time before clearing his throat and tossing Nott a present.

Nott unwraps a sack, that she dumps into her lap revealing a bunch of very shiny buttons. She glares up at Fjord for a second, clearly upset by the choice of gift. Then a very shiny one catches her attention and she goes back to sorting through them.

Nott has Mollymauk, and gives him a very shiny necklace that she claims she definitely did not steal. No one in the room believes her. Molly gives Beau a set of brass knuckles. She’s a little choked up about it when she thanks them.

The gift giving devolves into gentle chatter as everyone looks over what they have, spreading out slowly from their circle.

* * *

As everyone is chatting, Nott jams her bony goblin elbow in Jester’s side.

“Jester! Now’s your chance, go tell him! Go!” Nott is very insistent.

Jester is suddenly very nervous.

“I don’t know Nott. What if this isn’t the right night after all? I mean everyone is here— Maybe another time?”

“No! You wanted to do it tonight! Go!” Nott keeps pushing at her arm.

“Okay! Okay! I’m going!” She stands, mostly to escape Nott.

Jester still waits until everyone is preoccupied to take Fjord by the arm. 

“Would you come outside with me for a minute Fjord?” She asks.

“Why of course,” He replies. She hopes it’s out of fondness, but she knows that he’s too much of a gentleman to say no even if it wasn’t.

They step outside of Jester’s weird, almost castle, and there’s snow falling very gently around them. Jester’s grateful for the snow. That’s always a part in the holiday movies. There’s always just enough snow to obscure the moon.

“What’s going on Jester? Is everything okay?” Fjord asks.

It’s fair that he’s worried, because she did just take him out of a crowded party to talk to him alone.

“Yes! Yes everything is fine! It’s all wonderful, actually.” 

“Well, good. What’s happening then?”

“I— Okay, so this might be a little silly, but it’s the holidays and that’s the time for it so— Or at least it’s the time for it in all the books that I read. And, all our friends are here, and we’re having a good time so, I don’t know. Fjord I really like you. Not just _like_ you, like I like Caleb or Nott, but _like_ you. Like in all my books.” Jester does not really want to look at Fjord. She’d rather not see his face if he doesn’t reciprocate.

“That’s mighty sweet of you Jester I—” Fjord pauses. Great. She should have known better, known that it wouldn’t work like the books.

“That’s okay Fjord! I understand, don’t worry about it. We can pretend this never happened!” She tries to stay chipper, but she’s not sure it’s working.

“Hang on now, I didn’t say anything bad. Jester— Well I think I like you too. I don’t know if I can quite do all your books justice but, I’d certainly like to try.”

Jester jumps up to wrap her arms around his neck, squealing with joy. Her tail thrashes against both their legs.

“Oh that’s alright Fjord! It doesn’t actually matter if it’s exactly like the books,” She pulls back to smile up at him.

Fjord smiles back, then bends down to kiss her. It’s a little sloppy, because neither of them are very experienced kissers. Jester can feel his fangs poking into her lips, and her neck is strained from the angle. It’s perfect.

When she pulls away he’s blushing. Behind Fjord she can see the light from the fire reflected off the stone. Caleb is animated, talking to Molly, Nott and Clay seem to be deep in some conversation. Beau is passed out sprawled across Yasha’s lap. 

Jester knows that soon she and Fjord will return to the warmth and their friends. For now though, she kisses him another time. This might just be the best holiday yet.


End file.
